


Lessons in Astronomy

by pantswarrior



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: Astronomy, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Music, Parents & Children, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-29
Updated: 2012-08-29
Packaged: 2017-11-13 03:36:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pantswarrior/pseuds/pantswarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The romance between Edward and Anna began and ended with the stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I believe I started writing this fic in 2007, when akatonbo and I cosplayed Anna and Edward and I decided I needed to flesh them out a little bit - particularly Anna, since she dies about two minutes after her first appearance. I hadn't actually worked on it since 2009 because I figured no one else would care about it... but someone recently informed me that they wanted to read it, and I admit that I have missed writing it. So I'm putting it here in hopes that I'll finally finish it!
> 
> The theme of stars was inspired by the arranged, vocal version of Edward's theme from the Love Will Grow album, entitled "Estrelas", or "Stars", and somehow it just all fell together once I decided that's what his song was about. An excerpt of the [translated lyrics](http://www.fflyrics.com/fflwg.html):
> 
> _Look at the skies, so lovely--  
>  Full of stars,  
> Full of the dreams of those  
> Who hope for peace.  
> [...]  
> Come closer, little girl,  
> Listen to my guitar  
> And to my song,  
> Which sings of the beauty of night._

"For you, my dear." Corio smiled at the look of surprise upon her moonlit face. "Yes, I'm entirely serious. You've been a most attentive pupil."

Anna laughed silently, incredulous. "...Corio, how can I possibly accept this?" Besides the obvious and more innocuous embarrassment of having been given such a gift, her mind was already occupied with something darker, a more serious concern than simply accepting an expensive present.

"With a word of thanks?" he teased. "You can't fool me into believing you won't cherish it."

"No..." Her fingers drifted along the smooth, round sides of the small telescope, chill and pale in the night breeze. It was not as powerful as the one in Corio's observatory, not even close - but the size made it far easier to transport. She and Corio were both using this model tonight, having decided to view the heavens from a field outside the town rather than within, for the compact size and folding base meant they could set up such a telescope anywhere at all...

It seemed that Corio had been thinking along the same lines. "And the next time your father finds fault with my invitation to view a comet or a meteor shower after nightfall, you can still see the show, even from your own bedroom window."

Anna made a slightly exasperated sound. "If this is an attempt to appease my father, I doubt very much that it will have the effect that you expect." Quite the opposite - she suspected she would have to find a way to sneak it into the house, and come up with an explanation, if he ever should find it...

"It isn't, though I wouldn't have minded if it did so on the side." Corio rested his chin in one hand thoughtfully. "I've gotten the impression that it's not possible."

Anna's eyes lowered, and she shook her head. "...Likely it isn't."

Two years ago Anna and her father had come to the island town of Agart, isolated and small in population. In more than one way - the local legend was that the town had first been founded by dwarves, which would have explained why everyone was a bit on the diminutive side. Anna was a few inches taller than Corio, who was twice her age and one of the taller men in town. Her cynical suspicion was that her father had come here hoping that his daughter would not be tempted by men who were shorter than she, and that with few travelers passing by, there was little chance of her meeting anyone 'unsavory'. 

Not that any male seemed to be anything _but_ unsavory in her father's eyes. Mysidia, where she had been born, was allegedly full of bright-eyed young men who would not hesitate at the chance to try out a new charming spell upon her, and so they had left the town when she was all of thirteen years old. Fabul had been hospitable enough, if remote, but her father found the monks' talk of honor and discipline all rather suspicious - a man being polite to a woman meant he coveted her, apparently. Troia, governed and guarded by women, should have been a safe place, but every man who came through the kingdom was certainly a lech, driven by the knowledge that there were more women than men, and surely he would find one willing. None of these places had been safe enough for his daughter.

Corio placed a hand lightly on her shoulder; she had been silent longer than she thought. "Am I troubling him again?"

"It isn't you," she assured Corio. "Not you, specifically... he doesn't believe me when I tell him exactly where I'm going, exactly what I'm doing. He doesn't trust you, and he doesn't trust me." She found her voice rising with her anger, and she bit her lip to curb it. "...He's been talking about moving to Damcyan."

Corio leaned back on his hands, eyebrows shooting up. "Damcyan... well now! That's quite a change."

"He tells me that I'd love it there - that they rival Baron in their technological advances, and their culture places high value upon the arts. I could study many subjects there. Assuming, of course, that I had only female tutors," she added under her breath, "since all men are liars, out to take advantage of gullible young girls."

Corio chuckled. "Even if it were so, my dear, you would have nothing to fear - you're hardly what I'd call gullible."

"Tell that to my father," she sighed. "Anyhow, the idea of living in the middle of the desert doesn't much appeal to me."

"I don't believe it would be so bad," Corio said thoughtfully. "All that flat land and open sky... it would not be so much different from living in the middle of the sea."

Anna couldn't help but smirk a little bit. "Ever the astronomer, Corio."

"Naturally." He grinned at her.

"But then," she added, "the thought of being out there in the middle of nowhere with no grass, no trees, no mountains... just _sand_ , as far as the eye can see..."

"I cannot be of much comfort here," Corio admitted, "for I have never lived in the desert, or even looked upon one - unless you count the moons." Anna nearly rolled her eyes - Corio was so single-minded, but in an amusing way. "But one advantage to living in the midst of the desert rather than on an island, Anna - when you come of age, if your father is still unreasonable... you may simply walk away under your own power, anytime you please."

"This is true..." This time, her smile was softer. "Thank you, Corio."

"And in the meantime," he added, gesturing to the telescope before her, "you could put this to good use."

"...You would let me keep it?" she said, surprised. "Even if I were to leave?"

"I told you it was yours - if I were to take it back now, I would be a thief."

After a moment she laughed, and leaned forward to hug him. "You've been too kind to me these past years, Corio."

Before Corio could respond, a coarser voice than his spoke up from behind her. "I daresay I agree with her, Corio - too kind by far."

Anna felt her heart sink. "Father," she began, almost growling in her frustration as Corio jerked away by instinct, and she turned to face the man striding angrily towards them.

"Did I not _tell_ you he was a philanderer? You've got my daughter exactly where you wanted her now, don't you?"

"I meant no harm," Corio replied, quickly but smoothly. "Certainly not - and let me assure you, if I had any ulterior motives whatsoever, sir, Anna is more than sharp enough to see through such things. She's a very bright young lady."

"I imagine that's just how men like you prefer them, isn't it?" her father grumbled, and as he approached, even Corio's confidence faltered, and he rose from his seat on the ground, backing up a few steps. Tellah had been one of the most powerful wizards of Mysidia in his youth, and though his magic had weakened over many years, there was still a fire in his eyes, an aura of power, that told anyone who beheld it that he was no feeble old man. "You're an intelligent one yourself, Corio - all the better for scheming, for subtle manuevering! And now you have my daughter out here in the darkness, on the ground! Just wait until your wife hears about this!"

"My wife knows where I am," Corio said, his voice careful and even, "and who I am with. She has no objection to my sharing my work with those interested."

"Keep in mind, then, that your _work_ is _all_ my daughter finds interesting about you!"

"Leave him alone, Father!" Anna shouted, her patience running out. "Corio has never done anything that would indicate he feels anything other than friendship for me."

"We'll discuss it at home, Anna." With that, her father took hold of her wrist, stalking back towards the town. Rushing along behind him to keep from being pulled, Anna glanced back over her shoulder, giving Corio an apologetic look. He shrugged helplessly before he was lost in the darkness.

"I'll have you know I've learned a great deal from Corio," Anna began again, snatching her hand away as they reached the outskirts of the town. "About the stars and the planets, and the way our world was born... never, in all this time, has he done anything improper."

"How about encouraging girls to sneak out of their homes in the dead of night for secret meetings beneath the stars?"

"He never _encouraged_ me to sneak out," Anna said, stubborn. "He believed I'd gotten your permission - I snuck out on my own."

"It was the least of my issues with that man anyway." Her father did not bother to look back at her. "Even his wife knows he's got a wandering eye - she admits herself that she's not his truest love."

"Corio's truest love is the _sky_ ," Anna said in exasperation. "If you'd ever spoken to him for more than a few seconds, you would understand that."

"He's never even attempted to speak to me."

"Because you terrify him. You terrify everyone!" Anna fumed. "The great sage Tellah, legend of Mysidia. Even if you hadn't been interrogating him the first time you met, you'd still be intimidating."

"Good - that's probably the only reason he hasn't tried anything direct with you. I don't like you hanging around his observatory anyway," Tellah grumbled. "Haven't you noticed the way his apprentice stares at your chest?"

"Because he's _short_ ," Anna groaned. "His eyes only come up so far. Am I forbidden, then, from studying at the observatory?" Her tone was challenging - if her father forbid her this, she was not going to obey.

"That would be a useless gesture on my part, given that you're both so determined." For a moment, Anna was almost relieved, until her father spoke again. "We're moving to Damcyan."

The only thing that kept Anna from screaming in frustration was the fact that she'd suspected as much. Even so, she couldn't hold back her exclamation of dismay. "Moving _again_? What good will that do?"

"There must be _somewhere_ in the world an old man and his daughter can live a peaceful life," her father grumbled. "I haven't given up hope just yet - we'll find it someday."

"There are _many_ places we could live a peaceful life," Anna snapped, "if you would stop picking fights with everyone who dares speak to me. You may be content to live the rest of your life with only me for company, but I am not - I'd like to have _friends_ , Father. And that will not change, no matter how many times you decide to pack up and move on."

"Well, then - perhaps we shall find a town where the young people are not indecent." Her father came to a stop before the small cottage at the edge of town where they had lived for the past two years - the longest Anna had lived anywhere since her mother had died. "I don't object to your having _friends_."

"Then..." Anna gave up, her shoulders drooping in defeat as her father unlocked their front door. She knew perfectly well why her father acted this way. Even calling him out on it was of no use - he agreed, but didn't believe he was taking it to extremes.

"Anna..." Her father followed her inside, slipping an arm around her shoulders. "You're a kind, generous girl. You have a big heart - I understand. But not everyone is so kind as you. Much of the world is selfish - and if they see a sweet girl like you, willing to please, they will take you for all they can."

"Much of the world? Perhaps," Anna muttered, refusing to look up as her father turned her to face him. "If I'm not permitted to become more than casual acquaintances with it, then I'll never know for sure."

Her father's voice was grave, his hands firm on her shoulders. "I can't chance losing you, Anna."

She looked up then, and above the rims of his round glasses, his eyes were serious, sharp in their honesty and their affection. She sighed and leaned forward to hug him. "I know... I'm not going to leave you," she murmured. "I promise. Even if you drive me mad, you're still my father."

His response was a faint chuckle as he hugged her back. "And as your father, I will do my part - I'll keep you safe. I swear it."

Which was exactly what Anna was afraid of, but she couldn't object to the sentiment.


	2. Chapter 2

Any protest Anna put forth was not good enough. She'd guessed as much, after so many times before, and her heart was not in it. It would make no difference.

The ship they sailed upon was a trade vessel - its home Mythril, its next destination Baron, which was as close as one could sail to the desert kingdom of Damcyan. From there, it was something of a walk, but rather a lovely one, through forests and valleys. As well, they passed through the village of Mist, where the callers lived. Theirs was a unique magic that none of the Mysidians had managed to duplicate, so of course it was of interest to her father. The village elder greeted them warmly, having been acquainted with the great sage in years past, and offered them a place for the night. Anna was relieved, for although she was not exactly delicate, she preferred to sleep in a bed rather than on the ground in a tent. And then, too, in the meantime, she and her father were treated to a display of the callers' ability - chocobos were called forth to bear their burdens, dragons swooped over the valley and vanished, and even the lord of fire, Ifrit, appeared and was introduced to the guests of the elder.

"What do you think of Mist?" inquired her father late that night, as they were climbing into their beds in the guest room.

"It reminds me a bit of Mysidia," Anna replied honestly, and could not quite keep the wistfulness from her voice. "So many things people take for granted here that never happen anywhere else..."

"Indeed - both are a mite unconventional," her father agreed. "...There is something to be said for stability, however."

Anna did not respond, but only put out the light. How could her father speak of stability when they were constantly moving to somewhere new? Even staying in such a strange village as Mist would have been more stable than what he'd been doing for the last several years.

At least Damcyan sounded promising, she told herself as they set out again the next morning. Although the kingdom of Baron had the monopoly on airship production, thanks to a genius engineer who had made a breakthrough a few years past, Damcyan had come close in its attempts, and reportedly had invented a craft that did not fly, but hovered smoothly and swiftly over even harsh terrain, easing the discomfort of crossing the desert. This was something Anna wanted to see - more so when the grass of the Mist valley gave way to hard, sun-baked earth, and then to an expanse of sand that stretched on before them to the horizon. Having made the journey before, her father advised her to cover herself despite the heat, to protect from the sun, and then the two of them began walking north. 

What their destination might be, Anna could not tell, nor even that they were not going in circles, once they had left the mountains behind. Given her father's age, and his frequent memory lapses, she hoped this was not the case... Secretly, she was pleased by the thought that even if it were so, Corio had taught her enough of the stars that she could certainly navigate them to safety after nightfall.

Fortunately, it was not necessary. Late in the afternoon - and the sun's position in the sky had assured her by this time that they were _not_ going in circles - she squinted, uncertain of whether or not she was truly seeing something ahead, and what it might be. Possibly just mountains on the far side of the desert... "Ah!" her father confirmed a few minutes later, as his weaker eyes also managed to make out that there was something there. "At last - we're almost there."

'There', as it turned out, was not Damcyan the capital, but the town of Kaipo, a small village that had developed near the largest oasis in the desert. It was a convenient stopping place for travelers that had come through the valley on their way to the castle in the northeast of the kingdom, Anna's father told her, particularly as a physician lived there who was a specialist in the desert fever that sometimes befell those unprepared to cross the sands.

Anna supposed, when they bypassed the inn and her father instead headed for one of the small houses on the outskirts of the town, that the physician was likely another old friend of his, someone who was likely to give them a place to rest for the night. She was therefore a bit surprised when her father simply stepped up to the door and opened it, stepping back with a smile. "And here we are."

Anna paused for a moment, thinking. ...Was he actually saying what it looked like he was saying?

Her father's smile faded somewhat at the expression on her face. "I know it's not very big, and certainly nothing fancy. But it's for only the two of us - does it have to be anything fancy? It will be our _home_ , and _that_ will make it special."

So her suspicion was correct. "I thought we were going to live in the capital... with all the scholars and scientists and artists."

Her father waved a hand dismissively. "Who wants to live in a capital?" he snorted, turning to go and have a look around their new house himself. "Too busy, too noisy... It's all well and good to visit such a place, but to make your home there? You'd never be able to get away from all the nonsense that goes on day and night."

"And all the young people who might actually have interesting things to say," Anna said under her breath, as her father went to inspect the kitchen. Having moved so many times, she was all too familiar with the sorts of people who tended to live in wayside travelers' towns such as Kaipo. Boring people running their inns and pubs, with their offspring who had no further ambitions than to someday take over the family business, perhaps performers who weren't quite talented enough to move on to the larger cities. Old people who wanted a quiet, pleasant environment to live out their last days. That was most _definitely_ not the kind of place Anna was hoping to settle down.

But then, she admitted, as her father urged her to come take a look at the room that was to be hers, she'd thought at first that Agart would be thoroughly dull. For the most part it was, but then there was the observatory...

Even if there was nothing like that in Kaipo, nothing to occupy her time that was both useful and interesting, Anna supposed she would make do. After all, the day they'd left the port north of Agart, one of the sailors had approached her as she stood idly on the deck, and told her a man with long hair had asked him to give a wrapped package, long and cylindrical, to the young lady with red hair and a yellow dress once they were out of sight of the land...

\---

Anna's first view of the night sky over the Damcyan desert was enough to make her catch her breath, even without the telescope. A wide, cloudless expanse, free of any atmospheric disruptions... Corio would have loved it, she thought. Never would the sky be overcast in a place like this - she'd asked around a little bit, and had been told that it rained only a few times per year. The only place anything could grow was near the oasis, which welled up from a spring deep underground. The lack of interesting things to see on the ground, however, might just be made up for what she saw above.

She wasted no time in exploration, taking up the telescope and a bag full of charts and maps over her shoulder, exiting the walls after the sun had gone down to escape the lights of even such a small town. Without its heat, the air cooled quickly; the next time she went out at night, she brought along the same garments that protected her from the sun and the sand during the day. When the sand was only warm rather than hot, she found it to be much more agreeable, and rather than having sand work its way into her shoes, she simply removed them, dangling them from the end of the telescope's tripod as she walked.

At first, it was nearly overwhelming - with no moisture in the air at all, she could see so many stars that at first she had trouble picking out those she knew. The view from her small telescope was nearly as impressive as that from the larger telescope at the observatory, if not so highly magnified, but she adjusted quickly, seeking out distant points of interest that Corio had taught her. Soon would come a meteor shower that took place every year, primarily near the constellation named Titan, and she greatly looked forward to that. It would have been better to watch it with another, of course... but at least if she watched alone, she didn't have to worry about her father's forbidding it, or making a scene if she snuck out.

He already knew that she went out at night, thank goodness, and had grudgingly conceded that she was allowed, provided that she kept within sight of Kaipo - which was a much greater range than he probably thought, given his eyesight in comparison to hers - and returned at once if she saw anyone else out in the desert. After all, he'd never seen her speaking with anyone but the shopkeepers, and Anna suspected that he'd probably followed her once or twice, just to make sure she was going where she said she was going. It was irritating, but he _was_ her father, and she his only daughter. She supposed he had a right to be concerned.

Not that she adhered to the rules so strictly, once she was certain that he was no longer following, and she had gone out often enough without incident that she believed it to be safe. The sky might as well have been a map, once she became accustomed to the subtle differences between Damcyan and Agart, and going as far out into the desert as possible was preferable. 

One night, however, she didn't go far at all - after even the quiet click of the door's latch had faded, she heard something she'd never heard in Kaipo before. At first she wondered if she was imagining it, if it might only be an illusion brought forth by the once unfamiliar chirping of nocturnal insects and birds. But no - it repeated, with a definite rhythm and pattern. Someone was playing music nearby, and not the lively sort she usually heard coming from inside inns and taverns in the middle of the night. This was harmonious and full - the kind of music that was meant to be listened to, rather than sung along with.

Curious as to who might be playing such music at so late an hour, Anna crept past the shadows at the corner of her house and along the path, following the sound. There was indeed someone there, sitting at the water's edge, back turned and wrapped in a cloak, so she could make out very little of the person besides fine, pale hair that caught the moonlight. If they had an audience, she did not see it.

Even so, the figure swayed to the music, seemingly intent on the song. Every now and then, Anna could hear a few notes hummed in addition to the music of the instrument. A harp, she thought, and the voice sounded like a young man, uncertain of the tune or the words. This was strange, for his hands obviously knew the song well. Then, after a few repetitions, the music simply stopped. "Hmm..." came the quiet, thoughtful murmur, the same voice that had been humming fragments of melody, and then the figure leaned forward slightly, and there was the rustling of paper. 

Anna couldn't help smiling, for she thought she understood now, and she stepped forward from the shadows of the bushes planted nearby.

Of course, she didn't get a chance to speak. Before she even opened her mouth, her foot found a dry twig, which snapped rather impressively in the stillness of the night. The figure before her gasped, and there was a tiny splash as the cloak whirled with its owner's movement.

Both she and the young man were still for a moment, staring at each other in surprise. He was richly dressed in silk and velvet of red and green and gold, the garb of a man who was well off, but there was something childish about him as well - the expression of uncertainty as he gazed at her may have been a part of it. "I'm sorry I startled you," Anna began, frowning slightly in her own bewilderment. "I was going to ask... The song you were just playing. Did you write it?"

"Er..." He still didn't seem to know what to make of her, and he was clutching the small harp tightly, holding it between them like a shield. "...Yes," he began cautiously. "Rather... I'm _still_ writing it, you might say..."

"I thought you might be." She tilted her head thoughtfully at him. What a strange man... "Is everything all right?"

"Ah, yes." Though his posture relaxed, he ducked his head slightly. "I apologize - I was deep in thought when you approached."

"So I gathered." Anna was also getting the impression that she shouldn't intrude any further. "Your song sounds lovely so far - I suppose you would like to get back to it? If so, I'll leave you be."

"No..." He glanced over his shoulder curiously. "It's all right. I don't believe I'll be doing any more composing tonight."

"Oh..." She really shouldn't have intruded at all, should she? "I'm sorry for disrupting your work," Anna began, but he shook his head.

"It's not your fault," he assured her, and his expression turned sheepish as he looked back up to her. "It's just that I... I seem to have dropped my ink in the pool," he finished with a quiet laugh.

"Oops..." Well, if he was laughing about it, Anna couldn't help smiling as well. "It's still my fault then," she insisted, opening the small bag she had slung over her shoulder. "Here, you can have mine."

"Oh, no," he said quickly. "That's hardly necessary. I can get more-"

"So can I," she said with a shrug, already having found a bottle within the bag, and she offered it to him. "My father is a sage, and finds study very important. He keeps us well-stocked."

"...I see." The man still looked hesitant, but he accepted the bottle anyhow. "Thank you... Is that why you're carrying such things around at this hour? To study? ...Or are you going out as a respite from your father's expectations?" he added with a smile. 

Anna laughed. "Both, in a manner of speaking." She rearranged a few things in her bag to account for the absence of the ink bottle. "I'm going out into the desert to look at the stars. The man who gave me this telescope," she said, turning a bit so he could see what she carried, "would have considered it study. My father finds it somewhat useless, but at least it's a harmless sort of uselessness."

"I understand," said the young man, sobering slightly as he nodded. "My own father thinks music is frivolous, and would rather I trained myself as a warrior."

Anna looked him over again. Small, thin, delicate features... and the way he'd jumped when she'd come up behind him? ...She tried not to laugh, as that would have been rude.

"My passion is for music, though, and not battle. Fortunately, my parents have always been willing to let me follow my heart, so long as it did not lead to trouble."

Anna's smile softened. "That's good..." She wondered, vaguely, if she would ever be permitted to find out where her passion was, let alone pursue it. "You're very fortunate, then, that you both know what you want to do and that you're allowed to do it."

"For the time being." Suddenly, he looked a little bit anxious again. "...If you'll pardon me, I don't know your name."

"Oh! My name's Anna. And you are...?"

"My name is Edward." Perhaps it was her imagination, but he seemed to pause for a moment, watching her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Anna."

"Likewise." Why would he have reason to look so uncertain just over an exchange of names, she wondered as she offered her hand. "Good luck with your composing, Edward."

"Oh, thank you..." He looked surprised once again as he accepted the handshake. "Are you leaving?"

She nodded. "I can only assume you'd like to get on with your work. Unless you'd like company?"

"I wouldn't object. ...Besides, there are monsters that roam the desert," he added. "You shouldn't be going there alone at night."

Anna frowned, hefting the telescope on her shoulder. "I've never seen anything dangerous. Only those moths, and their larva..."

"Isn't that enough?" Edward asked, regarding her quizzically. "They're enormous!"

"They're also very weak." No, Edward was definitely not cut out to be a warrior. "I studied in Mysidia, both black and white magics - creatures like that are not much of a threat."

"...I see. I've never actually faced one..." Edward admitted sheepishly. "It's good that you're so well-equipped to defend yourself. I suppose if you'd rather venture out into the desert, then..."

Anna put her hands on her hips, looking at him with amusement. "Was your invitation to stay only offered in hopes of keeping me from wandering the desert alone?"

He looked slightly taken aback. "Not at all - I'd be happy to play you a song or two."

"Then I'd be happy to listen," Anna told him with a smile. "I enjoyed listening to you when you were playing a moment ago." Even in the dim moonlight, reflected in the pool of water, Anna thought she could see him blush. She couldn't help but wonder... No, it was probably her imagination. It wasn't if she had any experience with that sort of thing, and it was her father who saw it everywhere.

"All right, then..." He gestured to the rocks beside the water, where he'd been sitting, bowing slightly. "You mentioned you'd studied in Mysidia - have you seen the crystal of water, then?"

"Yes, many times," she affirmed as she accepted his invitation and settled down. "I've seen the crystals of air and earth as well, in Fabul and Troia."

"And not the crystal of fire here in Damcyan?" he inquired, settling himself beside her with a raised eyebrow. "Is that where your travels take you next?"

"I'm not traveling, actually - my father and I moved to Kaipo only a short while ago, and I haven't yet had the chance to see the capital."

"Ohhhhh."

She gave him a strange look - it sounded like he'd just realized something - but he only shook his head. "So you've seen all but the Damcyan crystal..." he mused. "I've lived in Damcyan my whole life, but I've traveled a bit, here and there. I've been to Fabul and Troia myself, and the Mysidian crystal of water is the only one of the four I have yet to see with my own eyes. Which is why I came here tonight, beside the water..."

"Hmm?"

"I'm writing a piece for the crystals," he explained, "with four movements, one for each. The fire movement was the simplest, for I've pondered the crystal of fire often. Air and earth I am also familiar with... But living in Damcyan, I'm not so familiar with water, and the way people in other lands might see it. To those who live in the desert kingdom, it's something foreign, precious. This movement has been... elusive."

"That makes sense." Anna found it further endearing that he seemed so much more at ease than he had been already, just having the opportunity to talk about his music and his creation, and she listened with interest.

"This pool here in Kaipo is the largest body of water you can find in Damcyan, all the way to the edge of the continent," he explained further. "And here, water is a sign of peace, of comfort, and that is the feel I want to bring across in the song. ...As one who is more familiar with the subject," he added, "does that seem right to you, for a song devoted to the crystal of water?"

"Hmm... Well..." Anna considered. "Water is not always so peaceful - I've seen maelstroms at sea, and waves crashing upon the shore... rainstorms that damage homes and fields... But the nature of water is one of rejuvenation, at heart. That is what the elders of Mysidia taught - though all elements have their darker sides, water is always moving, cleansing, nurturing. So if you're making a song about the crystal of water, then I believe you're right."

Edward nodded, giving her a relieved smile. "I'm glad to have a second opinion. Fire is considered to be much the same way in Damcyan," he observed. "It can be a destructive force, devouring all in its path - but it gives us light and warmth. We use it to cook our food, and to power our engines. It is said we all have a fire in our souls as well, inspiring us to continually seek out new things in life, just as the flame cannot burn the same kindling forever - and it is quenched if we remain complacent."

Anna felt she could relate to that all too well, but she made herself smile at Edward. It wasn't hard. "I think your fire is showing," she teased, "because your face lights up when you're talking about your inspiration."

He laughed softly, but this time didn't duck away in embarrassment. "...Perhaps. Shall I play it for you?"

"Please." She had a feeling that even if his music was terrible, she couldn't help but enjoy it for the sake of his enthusiasm.

Fortunately, his music wasn't terrible in the least - the tune he played was bright and majestic, evocative of a lamp lighting the darkness, of a distant fire guiding one who was lost to safety, of the sun rising into a glorious dawn, just as the words he sang described. When the last grand chord was left lingering across the water, Anna was reluctant to break the spell, and so refrained from applause. "Amazing - it's not the way I'd thought of fire at all, but it makes sense."

"Thank you..." His smile was easier now than it had been. It made his face look much less childish and delicate than she'd thought at first. "Would you like to hear the movements for earth and air?"

"Of course I would! You can hardly stop now."

He laughed again, and his fingers idly picked out another chord. Even the chords born of his fingers' restlessness were beautiful. "I suppose I cannot, when I have such an appreciative audience to play for."

Edward knew many songs beyond just the cycle he was currently working on, and so when he had finished that, he played a few more. There had been traveling bards and minstrels that had come to the cities Anna had lived in, but always they had been playing for the amusement of a crowd, never with such a personal touch. Anna found it enchanting, and thought she could have listened to Edward sing forever.

Unfortunately there came a time when she found herself trying to stifle a yawn as he played, and he paused. "...I've kept you too late, haven't I?"

"If I'd wanted to leave, I would have said so," she pointed out, and gave in to a yawn, since it was already apparent to him. "I've been enjoying myself."

"I'm glad to hear it. But you've spent all this time with me, instead of your stargazing," he murmured.

"The stars will be there tomorrow night," she said dismissively. "I doubt there will even be clouds in the way."

"There seldom are," he agreed. Then he hesitated, his eyes turned away suddenly, and when he looked back up at her... maybe it hadn't been her imagination after all. "I appreciate your thoughts on my music, Anna," he said seriously, "and your company as well."

She wasn't sure what to do but smile at him. "...I've enjoyed the night too. Enough that I forgot how late it was getting, obviously."

He nodded. "Not to be too intrusive, but... if you would like some further company at another time? Perhaps during your stargazing, out in the desert?"

The way Edward was looking at her... This was the sort of thing her father always warned her about, the kind of thing that would have made him throw a fit. Just for a moment, Anna was worried. A traveling bard was likely to be so much more wise about the world than she, and of course would know how to handle women. Her father would say that he probably had a different woman in every town in the world, that he was deceiving all of them, and there were any number of horrible things that a man could do to a young girl when they were alone...

But then, this was _Edward_. Granted, she had only met him, but just remembering the look on his face when she'd startled him was enough to tell her that he wasn't nearly so worldly or sophisticated as her father would suggest he was. He'd never even engaged one of the desert moths, in fact, and found them frightening. Even if she hadn't been trained as a mage, she was positive that Edward could never have hurt anyone.

"When will you next be passing through?" she asked after a moment.

"Anytime you like - I spend most of my time in Damcyan. In the capital, usually, but it's not so hard to get away for an evening."

So he performed in the capital? Of course - he was certainly good enough to play before kings. "Will you be in the area tomorrow night?"

He nodded. "I can be, if I have reason."

"You do," she stated, and her smile grew wider at the way he sucked in his breath in relief. "Shall we meet here, when the larger moon is setting?"

Any lingering thought of him potentially intending to do her harm was done away with at once. "...It will be very dark in the desert then..."

She couldn't help grinning. "Not _that_ dark. And I have my magic, besides."

"Well... if you think it's safe."

Anna would be more likely to do terrible things to him, she thought, than for him to do terrible things to her.

The way he had looked at her lingered in her mind after they'd said good night, while she was on her way back to her room, getting ready to sleep. It was the same way he looked when he talked about his music. Even after her eyes had closed. He wasn't the first man who had looked at her that way, of course, though her father seemed to think every man did. No, the thing that set Edward apart was... this time, it made her feel special, instead of awkward.


	3. Chapter 3

Already Anna had fallen into the habit of sleeping late, due to her stargazing which often lasted far into the night. It didn't seem at all strange to her father that she should sleep a bit later than usual. What did seem strange to him was her more cheerful demeanor.

"What has come over you, Anna?" he inquired, bemused by her humming as she hovered about the kitchen mid-afternoon, preparing what passed as dinner for him, as brunch for herself.

"What has come over me?" she repeated, stalling a little at the realization that he might find her happiness suspicious. An excuse was in order. "I think I may have spotted a new star being born last night," she said, turning to him, and no longer did she need to hide her smile. "It was not on any of Corio's charts, certainly. But it may have been that the atmospheric conditions here in Kaipo simply allow me to see more here than anyone did in Agart. Perhaps I will write to him and ask if he saw it as well..."

"Ah, I see." His eyes seemed to glaze over. Since they had left Agart, and there was no danger of Corio stealing her away in the middle of the night, her father no longer bristled at the thought of her communicating with him - and as always, he took no true interest in the sky, aside from the fact that it seemed to keep her content to discuss such things. "What a marvelous discovery, my dear."

"...It rose a bit late in the evening," she continued, and wondered if it was a bad idea to stretch the excuse further. "I was thinking I would go out again tonight, and try to get a better look once the moons had set. Would it be all right? I promise, I've never seen another living soul out in the desert at night, and since we've arrived I've heard not so much as a _rumor_ of bandits operating nearby..."

"Nor have I," he admitted. "I suppose that would be fine... Just be very, very careful. Keep to open land - and if you see anyone, even off in the distance..."

"I know, I know." Even her exasperated agreement was more good-natured today, and her father chuckled, returning to the ancient scrolls he had been examining. Thank goodness the quiet life in Kaipo agreed so well with him.

The moons would set earlier than usual for the next week, and already they were beginning to sink towards the western horizon when her father turned in for the night, leaving her to her books and charts with another admonition to take care in the desert. Anna reassured him, and then settled down to watch the moons through her bedroom window. Perhaps she should have agreed to meet Edward earlier, so she could show him a view of the moons and their surfaces through the telescope. Then again, perhaps he would like to come with her on a later date - and there was the meteor shower coming soon as well...

As she waited there, head resting comfortably on her arms on the windowsill, she suddenly heard a faint humming sound in the distance. After a moment, she was able to place it as one of the hovercrafts from the capital, she thought. The giant machines had come every few days since her arrival, ferrying travellers off to other lands more quickly than they could travel on foot. She had thought they only ran during the daytime, though, rather than the middle of the night... But sure enough, as the sound became louder, she could feel the breeze pick up. Soon there was a cloud of dust approaching across the northern desert. Would Edward be riding it, she wondered? The way he dressed, he certainly had the money to do so - and given his timidity regarding being alone in the desert at night, it would undoubtedly have been his preferred way to travel.

Once she'd heard the humming sound increase to a distant roar, then rumble to a stop, Anna gathered her things and slipped out the front door. It was nearly time for them to meet anyhow, as the closer moon was low in the sky, the more distant one lingering approximately twenty-five degrees above it.

Not long after she'd settled down beside the water, she heard soft footsteps behind her and turned to look over her shoulder. "The hovercraft brought you, didn't it?"

Again came the sheepish, slightly shy smile she'd been thinking about. "I should have known you'd be able to tell."

"It makes a unique noise," she reasoned, getting to her feet again. "I didn't know they would run so late, though."

"They do if someone requires their services. And I could not have returned on foot so quickly, even if I'd wanted to cross the desert and the mountain pass by myself."

Anna frowned slightly. "You went back to the capital today?"

"Well, yes... I was expected."

"I didn't mean to make you travel so far in such a short time, when we're only going to look at the stars..."

"It's all right," he replied. "If it bothered me, I'd have arranged to meet at some other time. Shall we go?"

Still feeling a little bit foolish, Anna nodded. "I usually go west of town, so that the mountains to the east are further away, and to the west we have only flat ocean. That way we have more open sky."

"That sounds good." He hesitated. "Not that I know anything about these sorts of things - you're the expert."

"Expert?" She shook her head and began to lead the way. "No, I'm only an amateur. I _used_ to be an apprentice to a real astronomer, though... well, unofficially," she admitted. "It was wonderful - he had an observatory and everything."

"In Agart, perhaps?"

"Oh!" She glanced back at him in surprise. "You've heard of Corio?"

"His is the only dedicated observatory in the world," Edward said simply, coming up to walk beside her as she slowed her pace.

"Have you been there, then?"

"No, I've only heard about it. Our scholars in the capital gather knowledge from all over, and Corio is known to be the world's foremost expert on the moon and the planets. I've seen references to his papers in my own studies, when I was younger. It sounded like interesting work."

This connection between them was fascinating to Anna, small and tenuous though it was. "...It seems as though our world is quite small, as he always said," she murmured, and they fell into a thoughtful, comfortable silence as they walked. Strange how they'd barely met, and she didn't feel the slightest bit odd about heading out into the desert with a relative stranger.

As always, she removed her shoes at the edge of town, but Edward was more reluctant - he was wearing boots, rather than sandals like hers, and no sand would get into them. After a little teasing, though, he conceded and removed them, and was surprised at how soft and comfortable the sand was at night.

"Didn't you grow up in Damcyan?" she teased him further. "How is it that you've never walked barefoot in the sand?"

"Er, I tried once, when I was a child... in the middle of summer, in the noonday sun." He laughed at her sympathetic wince. "My father scolded me, but there was no need - my feet stung for some time afterwards, and I never did it again."

"After only once?"

He nodded, almost apologetically. "I am an only child... I was raised to be cautious."

"...Me too." Anna's mirth subsided somewhat. "...My father would throw fits if he knew I was walking out into the desert in the middle of the night with a man I'd only just met."

"To be honest," Edward murmured, "my parents wouldn't be terribly happy if they knew I was out in the middle of nowhere with a stranger either."

"Even if the stranger is only a girl?"

"Mm..." He glanced at her skeptically. "You _did_ say you were a mage, so you probably _could_ overpower me." 

She narrowed her eyes at him, just as skeptical, and grinned when he couldn't suppress his smile any longer. "So then... we both snuck out?"

He nodded. "I'm... not exactly used to doing this sort of thing."

She glanced up ahead of them, resolute. "...I am."

Edward sighed softly. "I'm afraid that I'm not very adventurous..."

"Well..." She considered for a moment whether or not it was too... friendly to say she was glad he'd been so for her. It probably was. "...I'm glad I'm a bad influence on you, then."

He let out a breath in amused exasperation. "You're not what I'd call a bad influence, Anna."

"Exactly my point. Someone else might be a much _worse_ influence, perhaps cause you to put yourself in real danger - and that just wouldn't do. Even if I do things my father is afraid of me doing sometimes, I won't act foolishly."

"Yet in the middle of the night, you sneak out to an isolated location with a man you barely know?"

"Hmmph. If you're afraid of the desert moths," she pointed out, "I don't think you're very dangerous."

He cringed slightly. "I'm not _afraid_ of them, quite... It's just that they're so large. And disgusting - scattering their scales around when they flap their wings... It isn't funny!" he protested, seeing the look on Anna's face. Anna could not even pretend to agree, especially when his protest was so half-hearted.

The two of them stopped a little further out, and Edward sat down upon the sand as Anna began to unfold the tripod and assemble the telescope. "What would you like to see first?" she asked, peering through the eyepiece as she adjusted the focus. "It's a pity we have a few days until the meteor shower, but in the meantime there are stars and planets, galaxies, nebulas..."

She glanced back when he didn't answer right away, and found him looking uncertain. "...I know very little of astronomy," he admitted. "Though my studies in the capital were extensive, it was not thought to be a terribly important subject. I know little about the stars, except that they make the desert sky at night beautiful."

That wasn't very surprising to Anna, who only knew as much as she did thanks to having happened across Corio's observatory - even in Mysidia, there had not been much study of the stars. "That's all right," she said, and adjusted the angle of the telescope, aiming it towards a place in the sky where two of the planets were visible at the moment. "It means you'll see things tonight that you've never seen before."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, a moment after she had moved aside, letting him look through the eyepiece himself. "That one is... red!"

"It's also not a star," she explained. "It's a planet - much like the one we live on, spinning around our sun. In olden times, before we had the ability to watch the heavens so closely, planets were confusing to astronomers, for while the stars stay in the same positions relative to each other, a planet will move about the sky seemingly at random, first roaming one way, then back the other... The one you see there is much further away from the sun than we are, and so it never appears very large to the naked eye."

"Ahh..." His gaze was intent on the planet, and his words thoughtful. "How much is this planet like ours? Are there people there...?"

"To be honest... we don't know," Anna replied. "There might be, perhaps... but if so, their lives would be very different than ours. Because it's further from the sun, it would be colder there, and we don't even know if there is air to breathe. We do know that it has two moons, like our planet... As more powerful telescopes are created, we may be able to find out more about it - someday, perhaps we can even visit."

"...Visit?"

"Already there are airships... It may be that some engineer will build one that can fly all that way. Mysidia even had legends of such ships, built by people from other worlds who came to visit ours." She paused, pleased by his interest. "Would you like to see another planet?"

"Certainly." Edward looked up. "There are... eight others, correct?"

"Yes, but they're not all visible tonight, or any night. Some are too close to the sun for us to see most of the time, and sometimes we're on one side of the sun while a planet is on the other. But there's another one, this one closer to the sun... just down..." She squinted through the eyepiece as she adjusted the angle. "...Here."

He stepped forward again as she moved aside, leaning down to look. "Ah - a blue one..."

They stayed like this for some time, Anna pointing the telescope at different objects in the night sky and explaining them while he examined them. It was interesting, after having spent so much time around Corio and his apprentice, to be the one who could answer another's questions. Most of them, anyway - sometimes Edward was curious about things she'd never thought about, or questions that could not be answered yet. Fortunately, he didn't seem to mind much.

On the contrary, he seemed to think all the more highly of her. "...I apologize for my ignorance," he murmured, after she'd explained that all the stars were as far from each other as they were from their world, no matter how close they appeared in the sky. "You must think I'm a fool for knowing so little."

"Not at all!" she exclaimed. "I don't know so much either, compared to Corio - and what I know, I only know because I chanced to meet him. If my father hadn't moved us to Agart, I would know only what you know, or even less."

"Even so... It must be tedious, answering such simple questions as the ones I've been asking."

She shook her head. "Actually, I enjoy it, being able to teach..." More than she would have expected, in fact. "...Perhaps I would make a good teacher."

"I think you would." Edward had turned away from the telescope for the time being, and was now looking at her. "If you enjoy it."

"...I don't know. I've enjoyed it tonight." And it would be something her father would approve of, certainly. "But I only just now thought of it."

Edward's gaze turned more thoughtful. "And how old are you?"

"Seventeen. Nearly eighteen," she added.

"Then... think about it some more." He looked back up into the sky. "You have time."

"I suppose you're right..." 

Watching him as he regarded the heavens, humming a little under his breath, she was abruptly struck by something. "...I envy you, Edward."

His humming stopped as he glanced back at her, surprised. "Hmm?"

"You know what you want to do, who you want to be. I've never had any idea."

"It isn't the stars that drive you?" He seemed puzzled. "You seemed so enthusiastic..."

"I do enjoy watching the stars," she admitted, "but I don't think it's what I want to do with my entire life... You can hardly make a living out of it."

"Unless you attract the attention of some wealthy benefactor who finds your studies interesting." He nodded his head knowingly. "Much the same as being a bard - your livelihood would be dependant on others appreciating your work as much as you do."

"Even if they did," she continued, "I've studied a lot of things in my life, and I've found them all interesting, but nothing quite _fit_. It wasn't because I was especially talented that I studied both black and white magics - it was because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I thought I'd decide eventually, but then we left Mysidia..."

"There are worse things," he reasoned. "It's far better to have no idea what you want to do... than to know exactly what you want to do, and be forbidden to do it." His eyes turned back to the stars. "Or to be afraid to."

"Maybe... but even so, I wish I knew."

"I was very fortunate to be allowed to study music," Edward added somberly. "If I hadn't... I don't know what I would have done."

He sounded so serious, Anna couldn't just let it pass without trying to make him smile. "You couldn't have just let it go... so maybe you'd have been more inclined to sneak out."

It worked - his lips curved just slightly. "Perhaps. You know, Anna... you said that my fire showed when I talked about my music. I think your water shows in your encouragement."

"You think so?" At the moment, she was more surprised that he remembered what she'd said the night before than by his observation.

He nodded. "You said water was renewing, nurturing, and that is what your words do to me." His face was turned upwards to the sky, barely visible in the faint light of one slivered moon. "...I feel inspired now. I want to write a song about the stars."

Slowly, she smiled. "Really?"

"Yes - but I would like another ear to hear it as I work, more knowledgeable than I," he told her, turning to face her once more. "Could we meet again?"

"Of course." So long as her father didn't find out... "And if it's not too soon, there will be a meteor shower four nights from tonight. You don't even need a telescope to see it. I'm looking forward to seeing the shower over the desert - it was amazing from Agart last year, even though the skies were too cloudy to see at times."

"That does sound like something I'd like to watch," he agreed, "and it's not too soon at all."

Anna had to agree. When they parted that night on the outskirts of Kaipo - later than she'd intended to return, after having realized abruptly that Edward had entirely forgotten to put his boots back on, and following several aborted attempts to say good night before they managed it - she already believed it might just be too long a wait. 

It was not unlike what she felt for the stars, or for the study of magic, or any of the other subjects she'd found interesting during the course of her life. Never had she felt quite that way about another person, though.


	4. Chapter 4

The night of the meteor shower, when it arrived at last, was all she had hoped for, and then some. She headed out earlier than usual, before her father had gone to bed - he did, after all, understand that it was a special occasion to her - and when she heard the sound of the hovercraft coming from near the town behind her, she paused and waited until Edward had caught up. Despite her father's usual warnings not to go too far alone... well, she wasn't alone, was she? She and Edward went out further than usual, and settled down in the middle of bare desert. Though she protested, Edward spread his cloak on the sand, and the two of them sat, him crosslegged with harp in hand, plucking it idly from time to time, her leaning back on her hands, both watching streaks of fire flash across the heavens.

"I've seen this shower before, last year and the year before," she said in amazement, "but never like this - the air is so clear here that I can see far more than I ever did."

Edward made a faint noise of uncertainty. "...Where do they all land? Or do they only fly past the planet?"

"These are very small bits of debris," she explained, "and burn up before they ever reach the planet's surface. But Father says that there is a spell," she added, "that only the greatest of mages could ever master - it summoned larger meteors from far away to come crashing down on the mage's enemy."

"It sounds terrible," Edward murmured.

"It is," Anna agreed. "Most black magic has some sort of practical application as well as being used in battle... but I'm not sure how such a spell as that could be useful for anything else. ...I suppose it would be interesting to see, if nothing else, but our world hasn't seen it for generations."

"As for me," Edward said thoughtfully, "I would rather sit and watch the stars fall naturally, like this." She nodded, and they both fell back into comfortable silence.

A few minutes later, the silence was broken by his harp. At first she thought it was more idle plucking, as it began slowly, but there was a pattern, more noticeable as his fingers moved more quickly across the strings. She quieted even her breath to listen, and the music cascaded forth like the arcs of light that shot across the heavens. Edward was _playing_ what they were _seeing_ , she realized...

Anna said nothing until he'd paused in his playing, letting the tumbling notes drift off into nothingness. "...Did you write that?"

He smiled a little. "Ah, once again, to be more precise, I _was_ writing it just then. A song for the stars that fall peacefully."

"It's perfect."

"But I don't know if I'll be able to find the words to match the sound-"

"It doesn't _need_ words to be perfect," Anna told him. "If you can't find them, then it's fine as it is."

He considered. "Perhaps you're right."

They sat there watching longer still, until Anna sensed more than saw - Edward had ceased to watch the sky, and was now watching her. She tilted her head at him curiously.

He seemed slightly flustered that she'd noticed. "You've... shown me amazing things," he began hesitantly. "Would you... allow me to show you something? Something I'm sure you've never seen before?"

Thoughts of her father made her wary for a moment, but she was more curious than wary. "What is it?"

"It will take some time, but we could be there just before dawn. If you're willing to stay out so long, and if you trust me to take you so far from home," he added. "I would not blame you if you did not."

She had begun to get a little bit drowsy, but her heart leapt at his offer. "Of course I trust you. ...But my father would be angry if I wasn't home yet when he woke."

"I understand," Edward said with a nod. "Another time, perhaps?"

"Definitely." She felt quite disappointed at not being able to go tonight. "When?"

"Anytime you like," he replied. "In fact... if you're able to get away for an entire day sometime, I could show you around the capital. I suspect you'd enjoy it. There's so much to do, so much to see..."

Her heart sank further. "I'd love to, Edward - I truly would. But my father would never allow it, not alone with someone he doesn't know."

Edward gave her a frown of concern. "He's so strict as that?"

"Probably more so," she sighed. "He likely wouldn't allow it even with a man he _did_ know."

"Mmm..." Edward sighed as well, bowing his head in thought. "I suppose I'm fortunate... Though my father sometimes disapproves of my doings, my mother is an advocate for me. She must worry when I'm travelling on my own, meeting strangers from all walks of life, but she supports my right to follow my heart while I'm young."

"...My parents were older than most when my mother gave birth to me," admitted Anna, "and she died when I was a child. Ever since, I've been my father's whole world - he's terrified at the thought of something or someone taking _me_ from him as well. Every time he thinks he spots a danger to me, whether real or perceived, he moves us to another place that he thinks I'll be safer. That's how we came to Kaipo," she explained. "He's always been strict, but I know that it's because he loves me. And now that he's getting older... Once he had his magic, but he's begun to forget his spells. I'm all he has left that he can count on, so it's no wonder he acts as he does."

Edward nodded slightly in agreement. "Yet you have your own life to live as well, and he must understand that."

"I wish he would... I don't regret living with him, taking care of him in his old age. But I want more in life than that," she said in exasperation. "I'd like to have friends other than my _father_."

"Well..." Edward hesitated, then leaned a bit closer to her, placing his hand over hers. "You have one."

It was strange how much that simple statement meant to Anna. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"And you _will_ have others," Edward continued. "I don't know how you could do otherwise - you're not shy by any means, and you're quite conversational, and you know when to listen. You'll have many friends."

"I've hardly had any since we left Mysidia," Anna murmured. "None of those I did have were good enough for Father. The girls all lacked discipline and would lead me astray. The boys all were after only one thing. That's how my father thinks, and then he discourages me from spending time with them, speaks badly of them... limits the times I'm allowed to go out, sometimes even follows me to see what I'm up to..."

Edward frowned slightly. "So it would do no good to introduce us?"

She shook her head. "It would only cause him to be suspicious of my spending evenings out. And I can only _imagine_ what he'd come up with to say behind your back, since you're a bard, and you've traveled. Undoubtedly," she remarked sardonically, "you play beautiful music solely for the purpose of attracting vulnerable young women."

Edward paused, looking at her strangely. "Vulnerable?" he inquired. "He doesn't know you very well, does he?"

She couldn't help chuckling a little under her breath. "No, he doesn't. In his eyes, it seems I'm still his innocent little girl, the same who had trouble mastering a simple Thunder spell."

Edward nodded thoughtfully, and squeezed her hand lightly before withdrawing it. "Then about the place I wanted to show you - it is more complicated to go by night, but it is possible, if you would like to see it."

"I would," Anna said with a nod. "I'm curious. If it's so far, though, we would have to leave early."

"The moons will be full soon," Edward noted, "will they not? That would be the best time to go - and is it not a good enough excuse for you to set out early?" he added.

Anna almost thought she saw him wink, and slowly she grinned. "Yes, I've spent so much time focusing on the stars and planets that I couldn't possibly neglect the moons any longer. ...Now who's a poor influence on who?" she teased.

"A poor influence?" Edward turned his face upwards again, nonchalant as he watched the stars fall. "I would be a poorer influence if I did not repay you for what you've shown me. And you _should_ be living your own life - that is no sin."

His fingers picked out a chord on his harp, more purposeful than casual, as if to say there would be no further discussion of that point. Anna supposed that she agreed.

\---

On the night of the next full moons, Anna set out even before her father had turned in for the night, informing him that she would be going north of town to observe the moons at their brightest. He was growing used to this, it seemed, and her sleeping well into the afternoon after such excursions. He'd been suspicious for a time - Anna could tell - and had been up to his old tricks briefly, following her at a distance. His eyesight was not what it had once been, though, and despite the thick spectacles he now wore, it was easy for Anna to pick him out at a distance. 

She had in fact gone out several times only to look through the telescope alone, between her meetings with Edward, and so there was nothing out of the ordinary there. One night when they were supposed to meet, she spotted her father spying and settled down closer to Kaipo with the telescope. It had worried her, for they had set no plans to meet again, and she had no way to get word to him. Fortunately, the next night she heard the music of a harp by the oasis, and set out in relief to explain what had happened. 

Edward understood. "If ever we fail to meet at the appointed time," he suggested, "I will come here, by the water, the next night I am able. And you...?"

"I will do the same," she agreed.

Her father seemed to have been satisfied by the time she set out to observe the moons, thank goodness, because she did not want to miss whatever Edward was going to show her. But then, she became uncertain as she heard the hum of the hovercraft in the distance, and she found that the dust cloud was coming towards _her_ , rather than the town. It wouldn't be Edward alone on one of the large crafts, and if it came too close, she would be lost within the sandstorm that it brought. Her father's warnings ran through her head again, making her wary... but then, even if others were aboard, Edward surely would be as well. Not that he would be much help if anything strange happened, she admitted, but the thought amused her, and strengthened her resolve, standing still and waiting.

To her surprise, as the hum grew louder and the winds picked up more and more of the sand, blowing it about her, the sandstorm was smaller than usual, and the hum softer and higher in pitch. When it ceased, and the sands began to settle once more, she was able to make out a shadowed shape within the cloud, quite near her, and smaller than the hovercrafts she had seen. A figure leapt down, cloak trailing behind as he landed lightly on his feet in the sand, and Anna was almost positive at once that she recognized it. "Edward...?"

"It is I," he replied, and the sand settled around him as he approached. "I apologize if the hovercraft's winds made you uncomfortable, but I thought it better to not have to backtrack to it once I'd found you."

"It's fine," she assured him, looking over the craft. "...This isn't the same kind of hovercraft I've seen bringing travelers to Kaipo..."

"It's a smaller personal model," Edward explained, stepping back towards the machine - which, though smaller, was still enormous - and fondly brushing sand from where it had settled on the outer housings of the hovering mechanisms. "It is, after all, a quicker means of travelling than walking, but a larger craft is heavier, and moves slower. And chocobos do not flourish here in the desert, when only a few need quick travel."

"No, of course not." Anna was peering at the front of the hovercraft, at an emblem which she'd seen in her studies. The six legs of the antlion, emerging from beneath the sun... "The royal crest of von Muir," she observed.

"Er, yes..." Edward seemed sheepish again all of a sudden. "This smaller craft, swifter and designed to carry only a few, was made at the request of the royal family."

"And you're permitted to use it?" Anna suddenly recalled something he'd said some time ago. "So when you spoke of a bard needing wealthy benefactors..."

He inclined his head slightly. "...The queen... favors me."

Anna's eyes widened. "Really?" The way he looked so embarrassed, though, made her wonder. "...Favors you how?"

Startled at the tone of her voice, he looked back up to her. "Oh, no - not in _that_ way, certainly... She enjoys my music, that is _all_ ," he finished emphatically, and Anna couldn't help it - the look on his face made her laugh. More so when he began blushing to the point that it was visible even in the dim light.

"Anyhow," he sighed. "The place I wanted to take you is on the other side of the mountains, more than a day's journey on foot. If we are to make the journey and back in a single night, we require faster transport."

"I've always wanted to ride the hovercrafts," Anna said honestly, stepping closer, examining it.

"I'm glad, then, that I could assist you in this." There was a series of rings, similar to a ladder, leading up the side to a hatch, and Edward took hold of them. "Can you climb these, or should I open the back? It is, after all, designed in such a way that the queen is never in danger of her skirts blowing up as she enters or exits," he explained, "but I've never had to worry about such things."

Anna giggled softly at such a thought. "I'll be fine. As long as you enter before me and exit after me." 

She giggled again when he turned away, blushing. Clearly, the thought had never entered his mind for a moment. Anna wished she _could_ introduce Edward to her father. He truly was the kind of young man he would have approved of... A pity she couldn't trust him to see that.

The interior of the hovercraft was... like Corio's telescope, Anna thought, but more so. There were knobs and dials and levers and switches all over a panel at the fore. Edward was familiar with the operation, however, and settled in one of the cushioned seats, reaching for a lever. "This removes the safety, which keeps the engine from igniting if someone should accidentally touch the panel," he told her, "and this turns the motor on..." A humming sound rose up from beneath them as he pushed a switch down, then he looked to her. "And you should sit now, because _this_ switch controls the hovering mechanisms, and I'm about to turn them on. It makes the cabin shake for a moment."

When she'd followed his advice, feeling somewhat out of place in such a large, comfortable seat as those in a royal craft, it did indeed tremble around them, and her hands gripped the arms of the seat as she saw the sand thrown up in front of the window before them. It resolved itself quickly until she could hardly perceive any movement at all and the sand was thrown to the side, clearing the view through the window - and then as Edward turned one of the knobs, she could sense them beginning to rise, a sensation confirmed by her view of the mountains to the north, which seemed to sink slightly. "...Amazing," she murmured, and his pleased smile when he turned to her was a sight to see as well. Then, with two levers pressed forward and a gentle but obvious shifting of balance, they were moving, gliding over the sands smoothly and swiftly. If they had been traveling by chocobo, Anna would have been clinging to the creature's neck, given their speed - but within the hovercraft, it was not even the slightest bit jarring.

"We'll pass over the shallows at the ocean's edge," Edward told her, pulling one lever back to turn westward, "and bypass the mountains. Then we go east."

Through the glass window, Anna couldn't make out the stars so easily to tell which direction they were headed, but upon the control panel, she found that there was a compass among the dials, surrounded by readouts that made little sense to her. She watched for a moment as they increased, and then sat back to watch the desert racing by.

She must have been silent longer than she thought, for Edward finally glanced over to her. "What do you think?"

"It's... interesting, but a little unnerving," she admitted. "It doesn't feel like we're moving."

"Yet we're nearly to the ocean already," Edward informed her. "A great improvement over walking, wouldn't you say?"

"Very much."

Just as he'd said, the horizon changed before long, and the pale sands gave way to an expanse of dark water, as the mountains rose up to the north at their approach. The craft didn't slow as it rushed towards the ocean's edge, and though Anna half-expected some sort of giant splash, there was only a momentary rocking to show their passing, and then a spray of water to either side instead of sand. 

Anna couldn't suppress a quiet, incredulous laugh, and she looked over to see Edward grinning. "Are you enjoying this, teaching me for a change?" she teased.

"Very much," he agreed, then hesitated. He seemed to be weighing something in his mind, and Anna waited. "...Would you like to learn to drive it?" he asked at last.

Anna raised her eyebrows. "You can't be serious..."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated... expensive..." There was more to it than that, but those were the two main points that seemed to stick out to Anna. "What if I crash it into something?"

Edward gestured at the view through the window as the craft made a right turn back towards land. "What is there to crash it into? Before us there is nothing but water - and beyond that, nothing but sand."

"You have a point." But then, too, it belonged to the royal family - and who was she to operate something that belonged to royalty? On the other hand, she couldn't deny that she was intrigued. "...Would it really be all right?"

"I will be right here," Edward assured her with a nod. "And it would be exceedingly difficult for you to cause the hovercraft to come to any harm without trying."

True enough - at the moment, he was hardly paying any attention to the panel or the view through the window, and their course remained steady. "Well, then..."

"All right," Edward began, and Anna thought he might even have looked relieved. "Before I let you steer, there are a few things you should know. I'm sure you recognize the compass - beneath it is the distance we've come on this outing. If you have a map, it can help you to see exactly where you are, but I've come this way many a time, and no longer need it for this route..."

Once he'd explained the operation of the hovercraft - it was like a ship, Anna thought, with dual rudders, but Edward knew little of ships - they switched seats, and Anna reached for the levers once they were back on dry land, out of range of the mountains that divided Damcyan in half. Turning was easy enough, she found, if precise turns were a bit beyond her yet, but it was far more difficult to make the craft move in a straight line again once she'd tried it. The craft still veered slightly right in the end, after having swerved back and forth several times, and Edward simply reached over and nudged one of the levers back to where it should be, straightening it out. "It takes practice," he noted, and his calm in the face of her confusion made her laugh.

Even so, she managed to control it well enough for the rest of their journey as they headed southeast, towards the mountains again, with only minor corrections needed from Edward. "So we're not going to the capital?" Anna inquired.

Edward shook his head. "There's little to do at this hour - little to do that you'd likely be interested in, rather." He leaned forward slightly, looking out through the window. "Good, the moons are nearly overhead. It will make things less difficult."

"Hmm?"

"You'll see soon enough."

Edward took over once they neared the mountain range, steering them and slowing them carefully, powering the craft off beside a steep cliff. He'd brought torches, Anna discovered, and as he led the way around the curve of the mountain, she saw why - there was a hole carved into the rock.

"We will only need these for a short while," Edward told her as they paused, and he lit the torches, passing one to her. "The moonlight should be enough once we've arrived."

"Arrived where?" Not that Anna was afraid of the dark, but why would anyone want to go wandering about in a cave in the middle of the night?

He held up a finger to her. "Wait and see."

Inside, the torches seemed at first to be of little help, for the cavern was wide. Edward knew where he was going, however, and quickly Anna realized that this was no ordinary cave. Stairs had been carved out, small footbridges had been built to ease the passage of humans over the rough terrain. Though she couldn't see far in front of her, and couldn't tell where exactly their destination might be, the path Edward followed was not a hard one. And should she have expected anything else of Edward, she thought in amusement. And so, when he stopped beside a large worn hole in the wall of the cavern, through which Anna could barely see a faint light shining, she didn't hesitate when he instructed her to put out her torch in the sand before following him into the tunnel.

She did, however, pause to stare around in wonder when they emerged at the other end. This was another large cavern, circular in shape and with terraces carved into the rock, strewn all about with sand from the pit at the bottom, where the gently sloping staircase before them led. Overhead, the moons shone full through a large round hole in the side of the mountain.

Seeing her hesitation, Edward turned and looked back, appearing rather pleased. "Do you like it?"

"Oh, yes," Anna assured him, though she was puzzled. "What is this? Obviously men have had a hand in this, but there's something very... raw about it, as well..."

"Men did not create it," Edward explained, turning again and slowly walking down the stairs, towards the patch of moonlit sand. "They merely facilitated an easy route here once they discovered it."

"So it's all-" Anna stopped short before she could finish her question - she could have sworn she saw something move in front of Edward. But no, there was nothing there but sand, she thought as she began to follow again, to get a better look.

"What is it?" Edward asked, looking back at her.

Anna was still peering at the sand - and this time, she was absolutely certain she saw movement. The sand was moving as if something burrowed beneath it, rather than a breeze over the surface. "...There's something under the sand down there."

He nodded. "That is what I wanted to show you."

"No, I mean... something moving. Something _large_."

"Precisely - the creature that made this cavern." Edward turned back to regard the sand he now approached, which shifted this way and that. "This is an antlion's nest."

Anna's lips parted in surprise, then she gasped as two gigantic pincers emerged from the sand. Edward was unconcerned as he reached the foot of the stone stairs, only a few paces from the jaws of the enormous insect. "Good evening, milady."

"Milady...!" Anna was stunned.

"I did say it was a nest," Edward reminded her with a smile. "It is where she lays her eggs. I somehow never manage to see the male when he comes."

"Perhaps he's the sort of man my father assumes all men are," Anna muttered. "...You're not afraid of this?"

Edward shook his head. "Few antlions remain in the world, and this one... I believe she must get lonely. She's enjoyed the company of humans for generations. And provided Damcyan with something useful and unique, besides," he added, stepping down into the sand and kneeling before the pincers. "Let's see..."

Anna could not quite get over how close his head was to those large, sharp pincers - and how he didn't seem to care one bit. "...And you're afraid of the _desert moths_."

"I told you before, it isn't that I'm _afraid_ ," Edward corrected her. His back was turned, but Anna thought he was digging in the sand. "I merely find them revolting."

The pincers twitched as Anna took a curious step forward, and she halted again at once, seeing clearly every barb upon them, glinting in the moonlight. "And not this?"

"Not particularly... Perhaps I'm used to her. She's far less messy than those moths and their scales." The antlion did, however, spray him a bit with sand as her head emerged, and each of her dark glassy eyes blinked at him. He simply reached up and patted her - and to Anna's amazement, the creature made a chittering sound, almost like a purr. "Are you helping? I'm sure you know what I seek..."

"What... do you seek?" Seeing the creature's reaction to his touch, Anna cautiously stepped forward again.

"I'm not even sure she's made one recently..." Edward murmured, and Anna saw as she approached that she was right, he'd been sifting through the sand. "But... Ah, yes," he said suddenly, pulling something from the sand and brushing it off. "The sandruby."

"Ohhhhh..." Anna had read of the rare jewel before - a jewel that only came from Damcyan, or so they said, and which had curative properties. "Antlions make them?"

"It's some sort of chemical reaction, between the sand of the Damcyan desert and the secretions when an antlion lays its eggs. They don't seem to occur anywhere else, even in other parts of the world where antlions have been found in the past." When Edward held it up to the moonlight, a perfectly round gemstone perhaps half the size of her palm, Anna could clearly see the reddish gleam. "There is a sort of magic in it, according to a physician now residing in Kaipo. No one can be sure if the magic comes from the antlion, the sand, or if it is a combination of the two, like the creation of the jewel itself." The antlion chittered again, and Edward once more patted her head, shifting to sit down on the sand. "I personally believe the magic lies in the antlion, for such an ancient creature, having lived through so many ages, must have many secrets. And the desert sands, though beautiful, do not seem to have any magical properties."

Seeing him sitting there in his fine clothes in the sand, examining a gem that he'd just dug out of the nest of the gigantic insectoid creature who hovered behind him, purring... "...You are the strangest person I've ever met," Anna observed, thoroughly bemused.

"Perhaps," he admitted, looking up to her. "Is it a bad thing?"

Slowly, she shook her head. "Actually, I think it's a good thing. It's far better than being predictable and boring. I just... never expected you to be the sort of person who would make friends with an antlion... or go digging around in the sand, when you don't even walk barefoot on it...."

"True," he admitted, turning the sandruby over in his palm. "Those are things _you_ would seem more likely to do, come to think of it." He peered at the gem once more, then stood, holding it out to her. "But then I would not have been able to give this to you myself."

" _Give_ it to me...?" Anna stared at the jewel, dark against his skin. "Oh, no - I couldn't take anything so precious."

"It's only precious because few know how to find it," Edward pointed out. "To those who do, it's only a secret, to be shared with those of their choosing." After a moment's hesitation, he reached out, taking her hand and placing the sandruby in her palm. "...I choose to share it with you, Anna. I'm glad your journeys brought you to Kaipo, and that we chanced to meet."

His fingers were warm and delicate as they closed hers around the sandruby, and she covered his hand with her other. It was more than the warmth of his fingers she felt, and she had to look away from the honesty in his eyes. "...So am I. Thank you, Edward." She found that she didn't want to let go - and it seemed, neither did he. She wasn't sure what to do...

After a moment, Edward turned his head slightly. "Ah... also... I never repaid you for the bottle of ink you gave me, on that first night..."

Anna looked up to see that shy, sheepish grin, and she laughed. "The ink was hardly expensive enough to merit _this_... But thank you," she told him again, squeezing his hand. "I'll treasure it."

"As I treasure our friendship." Briefly, Anna froze - in that moment, she could easily have imagined him leaning forward, and she knew not what she should do if he did. Instead, he glanced upwards as he let go. "The moons are passing from their position overhead - soon it will be much darker in this cavern. We should make our way back."

"We should," she agreed. "But first, perhaps I should..." The words trailed off as Anna looked to the place where the antlion's head had been a moment before, and found nothing but a mound of sand. "...I wondered if she would let me pet her as well."

"Next time, perhaps," Edward suggested, "as she seems to have decided she's had enough of our company for now. That is, of course, assuming that you would want to come here again..."

"I don't see why not." Of course, it would depend on her escaping her father's notice again... 

And that was when it occurred to Anna that she had not thought about her father once all night. It was an amazing thought - perhaps more unexpected and exhilarating than anything else that had happened since she left Kaipo - but she couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt even so.

She accepted Edward's offer when he asked if she would like to manage the hovercraft for the ride home, and after he'd shown her how to start the motors and set her on the proper path, it was simple enough - aside from an incident where Edward had taken the controls unexpectedly, to avoid stirring up a cluster of his hated sand moths that had congregated along the route. He had brought his harp along, of course, and once they'd passed the shallows and set a course southeast towards Kaipo, he settled down with it, leaving the craft in her hands as he gentled its humming with a quiet song, whose words were in a language Anna did not know. The melody seemed sweet and shy, and she did not ask him what it was about. Somehow, she suspected she already knew, and was not sure at all that she wanted to hear the answer aloud.

The moons were well on their way downward towards the horizon by the time she was making her way back into town on foot, neither of them wanting to attract attention by bringing the craft in too close. She half expected her father to be standing there along the path, giving her a stern look and tapping his foot indignantly for having been gone so long, but there was no sign of him, beyond a faint snoring coming from his room when she let herself into their house.

Rather than turning in right away herself, once she was alone in her room with the door closed, Anna brought forth the sandruby from her pocket, examining it and remembering the sound of Edward's voice singing words she could not understand, and the warmth of his hands. She wondered what she would have done, what would have become of them, if he _had_ drawn her closer, leaned down... if he had sung his song in a language she could understand.


	5. Chapter 5

Months passed, and Anna and Edward found that they were running out of secrets to exchange. He showed her the special places of the desert, she showed him the wonders of the sky, and of course there was the secret they'd kept together - the secret of their friendship. Anna's father seemingly had decided that even if it was strange, a mostly nocturnal life seemed to make her happy; she'd even invited him out on a stargazing expedition or two on nights when she and Edward had not arranged to meet, and the confidence with which she found her way through the desert and back seemed to set his mind at ease. There were no further questions from him, for which she was grateful.

Edward, on the other hand, seemed to be more and more frequently tense upon his arrivals, though he relaxed easily enough after a song or a shared joke. Anna had the feeling that there _was_ some other secret he kept from her, but she also had the feeling she knew what it might be, and she still wasn't sure whether it would be a good idea for it to come out into the open. She had a friend now, the first true friend she'd had since she was a little girl - why risk destroying that? She'd always thought that just that would be enough. Perhaps having what she'd wished for was only making her greedy. She didn't say a thing, and neither did he, and while they were apart, she worried about what would happen if one of them did.

His words one night, when they sat together by the oasis, wondering what to do with a whole moonlit night before them, made her worry come alive. "...Anna... I feel braver when you're with me."

"...I'm glad," she murmured. He'd been glancing to the north since his arrival, as if distracted, or just avoiding her eyes. "Why do you say this now...?"

"I was thinking..." And there, he glanced to the north again. "...There is another place in Damcyan besides Kaipo which has water - a very beautiful place - but I've seldom been there."

Now Anna understood those glances. "The Watery Pass? I've heard travelers make mention of it."

He nodded. "It's the only way to the northern half of Damcyan from the southern half, unless one has the benefit of a hovercraft."

"Which is why you've seldom been there," Anna surmised.

"It frightened me as a child," Edward admitted. "The pass is a cave that goes deep into the mountains... the path winds around cliffs, and there are narrow bridges over deep gorges. And then there is the mist from the waterfall, which can make the rock slippery..."

Anna tilted her head to look at him curiously. "But it can't be so dangerous as all that," she reasoned, "if so many people use it to get to the capital."

"I know - but for a child, fear overpowers logic." He lifted his head then, looking determined. "Would you like to see it?"

"...Edward..." Regardless of how determined he might look, there was anxiety in his eyes.

"It's not only for your benefit," he told her. "The capital has been buzzing with news of late."

Suddenly, Anna thought she understood. "We've heard things here in Kaipo, too - about Baron?"

"Then I don't feel so badly about telling you," Edward said, "if you've already heard some of the details. Their king has become suddenly... less friendly to the neighboring nations. His only explanation has been to accuse those nations who shelter the crystals of being selfish and hoarding their power. Two days past, men were arrested in the capital, near our crystal room. ...His Majesty is fairly certain of what they were doing there, and from whence they came."

Anna bit her lip, concerned. This she had not heard. "But he cannot prove it?"

"Not yet, but with a little research, he likely could. The problem is... looking into the matter and confirming it would make Baron even more hostile, if it became public - and so he's chosen to state that they were simply rogues acting on their own."

There was something obviously strange about this, from Anna's point of view. "And yet you know the king's suspicions?"

Edward's eyes widened for a moment, and he stammered. "I-I was... As I told you before - the queen favors me. I was in their presence, playing for them, when they discussed the matter. In truth, I believe His Majesty might have investigated and declared it publically, if not for her intervention."

Anna wasn't sure which to be more astonished by - this news, or the fact that apparently Edward was so talented as to be allowed into the royal family's presence even when they discussed such delicate matters as this.

"Whether he allows this to become public or not," Edward continued, more calmly, "he fears it will be the same in the end, and by that he means war." He hesitated. "...The idea frightens me. I have known peace all my life."

"I've never seen war either," Anna said, suddenly anxious herself at the look on Edward's face. "...When the rumors began, I suspected that little would come of it here in Kaipo, but I did wonder what you might face in the capital, if there was to be war..."

"I don't want to think about it now," Edward said, shaking his head. "Yet... I may have to think about it very soon. For the moment, I would rather face less... less daunting obstacles. And," he added, "I've always wished I was strong enough to show you the waterfalls. For all that Damcyan is known for its desert, the sight of the waterfalls deep in the cavern is said to be just as wondrous."

"Said to be?"

"Ah... as I said, I was afraid of it when I was young - the crashing of so much water was loud, and the rocks were slippery, and the cliffs were so high..." He looked at her, anxiety turning to a sheepish look. "I would like to show it to you, and perhaps at last find beauty in it for myself as well."

It still seemed like a strange thing to come to mind in the face of war, but it did not seem an unpleasant thing to Anna. "Let's go together, then," she agreed with a nod, and Edward's eyes widened, oddly enough. ...It seemed that she'd rested her hand atop his without thinking. Well, she could hardly pull it away now, and so instead she curled her fingertips around his palm. "I think it sounds like a marvelous place."

He smiled faintly. "Of course you do - you have been around water your whole life. Let us set out, then," he suggested, and his fingers tightened on hers before letting go to stand up. "It should not take us long to get to the southern entrance with my hovercraft."

"Unless I steer." 

Edward's laugh calmed the fluttering in Anna's heart. "You're much better at it than you once were," he assured her, as they started out into the desert, where he'd left the craft.

Anna had never been to the foothills of the mountains before, and so she watched as the sand become dotted with patches of darker ground, and increasing spots of scraggly but green plants as they approached the caverns. She supposed some of the water within the pass must seep out to foster vegetation here as well... and then there were cliffs of bare rock rising up on either side, as well as before them. The hovercraft slowed at Edward's hand, and shuddered to a stop just before a giant hole in the brown stone.

Anna eyed it curiously as she climbed down from the craft. "Is this the work of man, or another creature like the antlion?"

"We've assumed it to be the work of man," Edward replied from within, "though it predates any official record of construction. Inside, of course, men have refined the way throughout the centuries, building bridges and stairs... but history has lost the tale of how this cavern was discovered." His head peeked out for a moment, then he began to carefully climb out himself, carrying a pair of torches under one arm. "We will need these for the first leg of the journey, until we come out into the pass."

"So then, there will be no surprises?" Anna asked, accepting one. "No enormous creatures awaiting us?"

"I certainly hope not," Edward murmured, and Anna grinned at the look on his face.

There were no signs of other life as they entered, Edward leading the way along the path. "To be honest," he began, carefully skirting the edge of a large plateau, "there was another reason I thought I should bring you here."

"Oh...?" They were certainly... alone here, Anna thought. There would likely be no travelers coming this way at so late an hour. Not that she was afraid of being alone with Edward by any means - at least, for any reason other than the words that might pass between them, particularly if he were feeling brave.

His anxious thoughts seemed to be far away from hers. "If... if war should come to Damcyan," he began. "I imagine, given the power of the Baronian airships, any forces will simply fly over the mountains rather than coming across land. And yet, if they should move troops in the old-fashioned way, surely... Well, you see, Kaipo is between Baron and our capital city... I would want you to know a way out."

"...I see." Anna had not thought of that.

"You could bring your father, and... surely make arrangements for further evacuation," Edward continued. "Our civilian citizenship would be evacuated at the first sign of trouble, of course, most likely to Fabul."

"Ah - we lived there for a time," Anna remembered. "The monks do protect Fabul well." Of course, the way Edward was speaking... "You would be coming too?"

His back was to her as he descended a narrow stair. "With so many people together, we might never catch a glimpse of each other if it were so. Yet I suppose it is for the best," he added before she could protest. "Your father would find it strange to see his daughter greeting a stranger as an old friend, would he not?"

It was true, unfortunately. Anna kicked idly at the gravel along the path. "I must find a way to introduce the two of you," she said, "before he happens to find out some other way, and assumes that he knows why I've kept you a secret."

"You could come to Damcyan," Edward suggested. "Both you and he. And while seeing the sights, perhaps observing the crystal, we could chance to meet..." Seeing her dubious look, he added, "I could introduce myself to him first, and act as if I had not seen you?"

"I don't know, Edward," she said honestly. "After having known each other so long, I'm not sure how we could possibly seem anything other than suspicious if we were to arrange a false first meeting."

"I'm a very good actor," Edward argued lightly. "It does go along with my line of work, you realize. And, well... if it would set your father's mind at ease, you could pretend to be suspicious of _me_."

Anna laughed out loud. "That would be far more suspicious than my acting friendly. Particularly if you were speaking to him politely."

"It was only a thought..." Edward sighed.

After taking a winding path through the terraced cavern, and passing through a crude camping area that had been arranged for weary travelers, they came to another carven hole in the stone walls, this time through which a faint light shone and a distant sound rumbled. Stepping through, Anna caught her breath at the sight of the pass - open to the sky, there was a deep gorge carved through the rock by narrow streams that flowed far below. In the distance, beyond outcroppings and bridges and small waterfalls, was the source of the rumbling she had heard: a gigantic waterfall, mist rising from the pool below to catch the light of the moons.

Edward had halted, and he barely glanced at her as she came to stand beside him, looking instead at the waterfall in the distance. "...Suddenly I cannot remember how it is that I came to find such a place frightening," he mused.

"I can't imagine ever finding such a place frightening myself," Anna reasoned, "but to one born in the desert, I suppose the sight of so much water falling could be a bit overwhelming."

"Very much, yes," he replied. Then he glanced at her and smiled. "But perhaps, through knowing you, who were born in Mysidia, I've come to know water better than I once did. It can be overwhelming now in a good way."

"...I'm glad," she murmured, unable to meet that smile, though it warmed her just as his words did.

...There was no sense trying to ignore it, was there? She'd never been so fascinated by anyone before - more fascinated than she'd ever been by the sights of the world and the skies and the forces of nature. She could hardly pretend that she didn't know what it almost certainly meant - she'd read the stories, she'd heard the songs. Some of them even from his harp, though he'd been avoiding those songs of late. Was it because he felt the same way she did? Or because he knew how she felt? She'd never had to think about things like this before. 'Overwhelming' was certainly an appropriate word for it.

Fortunately, he turned that smile away, after a moment that seemed like hours. "We still have a ways to go along this path, if you want to see the whole way. It takes us down even to the foot of the falls - I promise, I will try to make it all the way without flinching. ...Much."

"I will be with you," Anna told him, "and didn't you say that I made you brave?" If she made him brave, she felt that he made her a coward - she wanted so badly to take his hand, but...

"You do," he agreed, and nodded decisively. To her surprise, it was him who reached out instead. "The rock might be slippery," he explained. "May I offer my hand?"

She hesitated for a moment, and tried to stifle a nervous laugh as she took it. His palm was damp, whether from his own possible nervousness or the mist she wasn't sure. "Are you offering me support, or hoping for support from me?"

"Ahh... a little of both, I suppose," he said with a chuckle, setting out towards the cliffs, and she laughed too. Despite her confusion, he was still her friend Edward - sometimes childish but always sweet.

The burbling of the streams deep beneath them in the gorge were lost in the growing roar of the waterfall as they grew closer, carefully making their way over the bridges - about which they both occasionally had to reassure each other, for they had held up beneath the feet of numerous travelers in the past, most of them likely larger and heavier, no matter how small the bridges looked among the cliffs. It was fortunate that they both had been spending the whole night out together recently, because it was so intense a journey that Anna's heart was pounding - it would have been hours before she could sleep, she was sure.

The most treacherous part of the journey, they agreed, was the last leg, down a series of stairs just to the side of the great falls. The stairs were steep and narrow, and the mist was so thick that they couldn't see the bottom. Fortunately, Anna's sandals were meant for travel, and they were not slippery on the rock. Edward's heeled boots, on the other hand, made his steps tentative, so they went slowly. At last, when they reached the bottom, they found themselves standing before a pool of water, white with foam where it caught the falls, slowly calming toward the other side, where it drained the water into the streams that they'd seen from above.

"...The problem is," Edward said quietly, after they'd stood there in awe, watching the water fall, "that the way out, to the other side of the mountains, is beneath the waterfall." He pointed to... what seemed to be almost a gap in the water, where the falls separated to either side. "The path is there, in the water."

"So you have to wade to get there?"

"And you get drenched even by approaching - the falls are so close that the spray flies up all around you. And the water... there's so much of it, falling hard enough to make such a noise, right above your head..."

With amusement, she watched his expression of dread grow. "...This is why you were afraid of this route, isn't it?" His sigh was enough answer, but she stepped forward, towards the pool. "I think it looks... fascinating."

"Be careful," Edward warned as she descended the steps into the pool, her feet making small ripples that interrupted the larger ones expanding around the falls. "There's a path in the water, like a submerged bridge, but if you step off of it, the water is much deeper."

"I see..." That would explain why the water was mostly dark beneath the white foam, Anna supposed. It was easy enough to see the pale grey stone path even in the darkness, though, and it was wide enough for more than two people side by side. She turned to beckon to Edward. "Are you coming?"

Edward shook his head, making a warding gesture. "Oh, no - I can't swim. If I slipped..."

The path went deeper beneath the water as Anna moved forward, and the hem of her dress was soon floating about on the surface. "I can swim, so you could just hold onto my hand," Anna assured him. "And it's simple to float - you only have to relax-"

"Easier said than done, I'm afraid."

"At first, perhaps, but then it becomes instinct." Anna shrugged and waded out further, curious to see what exactly lay behind the waterfall. "I should teach you, when next you come to Kaipo. I'd teach you now, but I'm not quite dressed for it, and..." She turned and eyed his clothing, silk and finery as usual. "I don't even know if you own anything that's fit to swim in."

"Probably not... I have very little occasion to go swimming, after all." He was fidgeting with the harp he'd slung over his shoulder, his eyes averted. "...We should turn back - we need to return to the hovercraft soon if we want to return to Kaipo before dawn."

"Just a moment," Anna said, turning back towards the waterfall and making her way through the water. "We've come all this way... I might as well see how this passage works. I don't understand..."

"Please come back," Edward called after her over the roar of the falls, and he sounded strangely nervous. "I have... a bad feeling about this..."

"I'll be all right," she insisted, glancing over her shoulder, "I can-"

Her reassurance was cut short by the water behind her abruptly rippling as if something beneath it bubbled from the deep - and with a crash, _something_ burst from the surface, long and thin and moving like snakes as they swayed behind her. Another crash, and more of the things appeared, nearly surrounding her. The breath left her body, and she could not even scream, though she heard Edward scream in her place, calling her name desperately as she froze, watching the tendrils wave as if blown by a breeze. To her left, she saw something else break the surface of the deep pool - something with grotesque eyes and many, many teeth.

Instinct took over, and she started to run - but there was nothing to run upon in that direction, and she slipped into the water and under the surface before she could even think to gasp for air. Something gripped her ankle - one of the monster's tentacles, undoubtedly, and held her there, unable to find the surface no matter how she flailed. The beginnings of an attempt to breathe caused water to fill her nose and throat, and she choked...

And then, she was simply floating, her shoulder rubbing against something hard and jagged. Her hands latched onto the rock - _damp_ , not wet! - and pulled her upwards, where she broke the surface with a gasp, only to choke again as she coughed up the water in her lungs. There was something going on behind her, but it didn't sound like a struggle, and when her head had cleared enough for her to properly hear, her breath caught again.

Edward's harp...?

All was still and quiet but for the thunder of the falls and the music, and she had drifted to the shallows in a cavern on the far side of the pool, behind the falls and next to the tunnel that would take her through to Damcyan. Edward, she saw, was ankle-deep in the water along the pathway, facing the creature that had attacked her with his harp in hand, playing a simple, repetitive melody. The creature's attention was fixed on him, its back now turned to her as its tentacles hovered above him, ready to strike.

Anna coughed again, and tried to call out, her voice hoarse. "Edward!" The creature's head began to turn at the sound of her voice, but the chords of the harp rang out louder, and it swivelled back to face Edward, moving ever closer. It was going to take him, she realized, if she didn't do something - and there was something she could do, if she could just get it away from Edward...

Edward was moving, she realized - carefully making his way along the submerged path towards her - and the creature was following. It hadn't attacked yet, but the tips of the tentacles were twitching restlessly, as if barely held in check, as he edged past it. He was walking backwards now, feeling with his foot each step of the way to make certain that he didn't fall, and as his concentration faltered, the harp's melody slowed. The tentacles twitched with more fervor...

The path behind him seemed to be straight, emerging from the pool just past the waterfall, though the pool continued to either side. Anna managed to get to her feet, moved deeper in the cavern, to where she could see him clearly through the center of the gap in the waterfall, and gathered her breath to call out. "Edward... run! Out of the water!" she managed, before another coughing fit seized her. No, she couldn't choke now...

Edward followed her instructions regardless, abandoning the music as he turned to run, making straight for her as she slumped over, nearly breathless. There was a terrible crashing of water as the creature followed along beside him, catching up easily, but Anna had just enough breath for a single word of command as Edward's steps emerged onto wet but solid rock.   
"Thunder!"

A bolt of lightning flashed through the cavern, illuminating the rock formations and nearly deafening Anna with its crackle - but it struck home. Tentacles waved furiously, and the creature roared in rage and pain as it slipped beneath the surface of the pool in retreat.

Edward's boots clattered on the stone floor as he continued to run, until he was clear of the water entirely, and until he had nearly collapsed on top of Anna behind the waterfall, throwing his arms around her where she had fallen to her knees. "Oh Anna, Anna, Anna..." he whimpered.

"Edward..." Her arms closed around him as well. It had to be his doing. He'd distracted that monster, drawing its attention from her when it had held her under the surface... and if she could do anything more than whisper his name between coughs, she still wouldn't have had enough words to thank him enough.

They remained still for a long time, huddled on the stone of the cavern floor, clinging to each other. Edward was still trembling even after Anna's breath had evened out, his face against her shoulder, buried in the wet fabric of her dress, and she wondered at how _right_ it felt, the two of them holding each other so tightly. Her fingers entwined in his hair, damp from the mist of the falls, and he felt so _warm_ against her body... He drew a shuddering breath at last, lifting his head, and she lifted hers as well, certain of what he was about to do, and no longer afraid.

Instead, he whispered to her. "...We must go." 

She opened her eyes in surprise, but could see nothing in the darkness of the tunnel behind the waterfall. "I... I must report this monster to the authorities in Damcyan," he explained shakily, "and... we can't go back the way we came. We'll have to go on to the capital to find a way back to Kaipo - I'm sorry, Anna, but you won't be home before your father wakes... I'm so sorry..."

In the shock of being attacked and the comfort of his embrace, Anna hadn't even thought of that, and her breath caught again. "...I'll tell him you just happened by, and that you saved my life. He can't forbid me from going out and seeing you if I tell him what you did." At least, she hoped not, but even she herself wasn't convinced. It wasn't fair - just when she'd decided that she wanted to _truly_ be with Edward... She hadn't even said the words yet, though she was sure it must be obvious. "Edward," she began, her fists clenching against his back, "I..."

"Please, don't speak," he murmured. She didn't understand, but she obeyed as he began removing himself from the tangle of arms and legs and soaked cloth. The cavern seemed so very cold without him against her, and she shivered. "The way is easy from here," said Edward, the silohuette of him turned away as he got to his feet. "Only a matter of passing through this cavern... it's dark, but there are no obstacles. From there, we'll be within sight of the castle."

Though her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, she could barely make out his offered hand, and clasped it between both of hers, reluctant to relinquish it when she rose. "Edward," she tried again.

"...Please, Anna," he pleaded. "I... Not now. Forgive me..."

Everything was suddenly so confusing. Anna didn't know how what he was saying had anything to do with what she was trying to say, or maybe it didn't. "I don't... understand. Forgive you for what?"

"There's something I haven't told you, and..." He took a deep breath, overwhelmed by his anxiety. "Just... you shouldn't say anything until I've told you."

Maybe it wasn't so surprising, that he was as afraid as she, maybe more. Between the two of them, he would have said that she was the brave one. "Then tell me," she murmured.

"Not now. Not when I can't see your face," he said quietly, and turned away from the waterfall, leading her in the other direction down the tunnel. "Come - you're soaking wet. Once we're to Damcyan, I'll arrange for some dry clothes, and a way home... I'm so sorry, Anna. This is my fault - if your father is angry, let his anger be with me."

"No!" she said fiercely. The thought of her father finding out about Edward like this... "If this is the first he hears of you, he'll be _sure_ you have terrible intentions for me. He'll forbid me to ever see you again. He might even move again, to make _certain_ that this is the last time you can ever put me in danger. And..." She stopped short, still gripping his hand and forcing him to stop too. "I'm not leaving." It had just occurred to her, and it was a daunting, frightening thought. "I think... even if he tried to make us move, I would stay. Even if he is my father, even if I am all he has..."

"Anna..." Edward shook his head, though she couldn't make out the expression on his face.

"I'm not leaving," she repeated firmly - and if she was brave enough and selfish enough to acknowledge that, then she was brave enough and selfish enough to acknowledge why. Letting go of his hand, instead she stepped in and reached up, finding Edward's face and guiding it to hers.

For something as magical as a first kiss, it seemed strange and awkward. Her lips were wet and cold, his were warm and dry, and he took a deep breath before they met, as if he were trying to say something - but she kissed him anyhow, and wound her arms around his neck, keeping him close. After the initial hesitation, the kiss he returned to her was just as fierce as hers, his arms tightening around her back and holding her just as tightly, making her heartbeat quicken. She clung to him, feeling dizzy, overwhelmed and yet still _wanting_ , in a way she'd never felt before. They'd touched before, many times, but holding Edward, and being held by Edward, was so very different from just holding hands...

At last he breathed a sigh into her mouth, and ended the kiss to rest her head against his shoulder. "...So it wasn't just me."

She nodded, content to lean on him. "After all the warnings my father gave me," she said after a moment, with a faint, helpless giggle, "about the things that men wanted from innocent young women... It looks like innocent young men have more to fear from me."

He drew back and shook his head, and her eyes had adjusted enough that now she could just make out the little smile. "I'm not afraid when you're with me," he said, and leaned in to kiss her again, this time slower and more gently. Even so, it was every bit as intoxicating as the last.

But neither the smile nor the kiss could last forever, and after a time Edward reluctantly murmured that they should be on their way. "I would rather you weren't in trouble with your father at all," he said, his arm around her waist as he guided her down the tunnel. "But if it's inevitable, I'd rather you were in as little trouble as possible."

"It's all right, it's not the first time I'll have gotten in trouble," she said, resigned. "I'm always getting in trouble, by his standards. And it's true what I said - if he knows you were involved, he'll see you as a bad influence and at best, we'll be forbidden from seeing each other."

"You're already only able to see me by sneaking out," Edward pointed out.

"I'm only able to sneak out because he doesn't know I'm meeting someone." Anna sighed. "And if he finds out that I kissed you, he'll certainly assume that I'm meeting someone who's taking advantage of me."

"Sometimes I feel as if I am," Edward confessed. "After all, I've claimed to be coming along with you to look at the stars... and I do, and they're beautiful," he assured her, "but just as often, I've been spending the time looking at a lovelier sight..."

"You're _definitely_ never going to be able to meet my father," she murmured. "If he hears the way you speak of me, he'll be sure you've charmed me with your pretty words. ...But it's not your words that charmed me, or your music... It's just... you."

Edward had to observe, a short time later, that if they kept stopping for more and more kisses, it would take far longer to reach Damcyan. Somehow, Anna had ceased to care.


End file.
